Eliphalet Terry

A very pleasant personality comes up before us with the name of Eliphalet Terry, one of our oldest members, having been elected in 1851, who was the very embodiment of the best spirit that prevails here. Gentle, modest, appreciative, intelligent and companionable, every one claimed him as a friend, and welcomed him as a pleasant addition to any group that gathered within these walls.

He came of sturdy Puritan ancestry, and the best New England blood. He had traveled extensively in Europe, was an artist of acknowledged excellence, imbued with a love for all that was beautiful in art, and was influential in promoting its extension in the early days, before it was as extensively cultivated as now. He was a true lover of nature, an enthusiastic and generous sportsman, an adept in the gentle art of angling, and the conservatism of his quiet nature is shown in the fact that for forty years he has made two annual pilgrimages to his home which he established in the heart of the Adirondack woods, when it was a veritable wilderness; and his chief pleasure was in the forests he loved so well. His end was as peaceful as his life. After an evening at the Club, he returned to his rooms, and was found sitting in his easy chair, with his pipe in his hand and a smile upon his face. The grim messenger had come to him in a kindly form, had touched him and he slept.

Henry E. Howland
1897 Century Association Yearbook